


something is lost, something is found

by cosmic_llin



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Between Seasons/Series, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 10:10:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14330202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/pseuds/cosmic_llin
Summary: ‘It’s not that far from here,’ said Hecate. ‘It’s a very highly regarded destination for the witch who needs to unwind. There are pools and magical relaxation treatments and…’Ada let out a long, deep sigh. ‘I suppose ifyou’retelling me I need to relax, I must be more… preoccupied than I realised.’After the events of The Worst Headmistress, Ada and Hecate take some time to relax.





	something is lost, something is found

Three weeks had passed since the end of term, and Ada hadn’t left the grounds once. She’d barely even left her office.

Several of the teachers stayed in the castle over the summer, but with no tests to mark or lessons to prepare there were day trips to the seaside, overnight jaunts, picnics and outings. Ada was usually the first one to hop on her broom for an adventure at this time of year.

One morning, Hecate brought a tray up to Ada’s office, since she’d missed breakfast again.

‘Thank you, Hecate, dear,’ said Ada, barely looking up.

‘Don’t let your porridge get cold,’ said Hecate.

Ada looked up, gave her a brief, brittle smile. She noticed what else was on the tray.

‘What’s this?’ she asked, picking up the glossy booklet.

‘It’s a brochure,’ said Hecate, in her sternest voice, since she knew it made Ada laugh when it was just the two of them.

This time it didn’t even raise a chuckle.

‘Harmony Heights Witch Spa,’ read Ada. ‘Hecate… what is this about?’

‘It’s not that far from here,’ said Hecate. ‘It’s a very highly regarded destination for the witch who needs to unwind. There are pools and magical relaxation treatments and…’

‘The witch who needs to unwind, eh?’

Hecate made an apologetic face, nodded.

Ada let out a long, deep sigh. ‘I suppose if _you’re_ telling me I need to relax, I must be more… preoccupied than I realised.’

‘You’ve been cooped up in here since the end of term,’ said Hecate. ‘You need a break.’

They both looked down at the piles of open books on the desk - research into the transfer of magic from one witch to another.

‘I know you want to help Esmerelda,’ Hecate pressed on, ‘but you’re exhausted. You’re no good to her like this.’

Ada smiled. ‘You’re right. I’ll take a break. I’ll go for a nice long walk this afternoon, how’s that?’

Hecate folded her arms. ‘Not at all sufficient.’

‘I’m not going to this spa, Hecate. I don’t have the time, and what if something happened while I was gone? And what if…’

‘So you’re just going to stay in your office forever? I know you, Ada. The longer you let this go on, the harder it will be to stop. And in a few weeks the new term will start, and you’ll be ready to drop before it’s even begun, and how will that help all the new girls to settle in? Of course you can keep trying to find a way to help Esmerelda, but you’ll wear yourself down to nothing like this. Go, just for a few days. I can keep an eye on everything here.’

‘Oh, no… I’m not going by myself.’

‘Ada, I don’t think…’

‘Either you come with me, or I’m not going at all. Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you’re not sleeping, or that you haven’t been on a single outing either this summer.’

‘That’s different. It’s me. I spend every summer in my potions lab.’

‘And you’re usually as happy as a clam, I know. But would you care to tell me why this summer you’re getting through so much alstroemeria and belladonna?’

She’d thought Ada was too distracted to notice. Alstroemeria and belladonna were the two core ingredients for any potion to enhance or modify a witch’s powers. Ada had her books and research, but Hecate had her potions and her careful experiments. It seemed like neither of them was any closer to a way to help Esmerelda.

Hecate shrugged, embarrassed.

‘Just as I thought,’ said Ada. ‘When do we leave?’

* * *

Hecate had made a very interesting discovery.

She liked saunas.

She hadn’t expected to. She hadn’t expected to actually enjoy herself on this trip at all. She’d only agreed to come so that Ada would.

She’d left Dimity with a list of instructions as long as her arm and had promised to mirror in three times a day to check on things, and even then she’d felt uneasy about leaving the castle. She’d brought a pile of books, had only packed her swimming costume under duress, and had anticipated a few quiet days reading in their room, and perhaps by the pool while Ada swam.

She had gone into the sauna in the first place to keep Ada company, expecting to leave within a minute or two, once Ada was settled. Who’d want to deliberately heat themselves to boiling point? Hecate always hated the hot, sticky days at the end of the summer term - the classrooms got stuffy, the pupils couldn’t concentrate, her clothes felt too warm and getting anything useful done felt like wading through pondweed.

But the heat of the sauna didn’t demand anything from her except that she experience it. She didn’t have to mark end-of-year tests, or keep two dozen overexcited fourteen-year-olds in order, or sit through a broomstick display in the too-bright sunlight.

There was something primal about it. All she had to do was exist, in this dark, quiet space - it was almost too hot even to _think_.

On the afternoon of their second full day, she emerged from the sauna pink and tranquil, took a quick cool shower, and then went to sit at the edge of the pool, her legs dangling in the water. Ada swam leisurely up to her, propped her elbows on the tiles and smiled.

‘This is helping, isn’t it?’ said Hecate.

‘You can just say “I told you so”,’ Ada teased.

‘I would never,’ said Hecate, mock-frowning.

‘It _is_ helping,’ Ada said. ‘I feel… I don’t know, you were right about getting away from the castle. It was starting to seem as if the walls were closing in on me. This is better. But I still can’t help feeling guilty that I’m here, relaxing, and poor Esmerelda must be…’

She broke off and wiped a damp hand across her face.

‘What happened to Esmerelda was awful,’ said Hecate. ‘But torturing yourself won’t change anything for her. And it wasn’t your fault.’

‘Perhaps not directly, but I’m still responsible,’ said Ada. ‘Esmerelda was in my care… I should have taken better precautions to prevent Agatha from returning, I should have… I don’t know… taught them to recognise impostors better… and if Esmerelda hadn’t trusted too much in _me_ , she might have hesitated to do it… to think she would ever believe that I would ask her to give up her magic, even in direst need… didn’t she know that I would _never_ ask that of her, of any of the students?’

‘She’s just a child,’ said Hecate, ‘and she has a good heart, and she always wants to help everyone. It’s hardly your fault that she hasn’t been disillusioned by the world yet. Quite the contrary.’

‘Maybe we should be teaching the girls to be more… more cynical, more distrustful…’

‘If that’s anyone’s job, it’s mine,’ said Hecate. ‘Yours is to inspire them, to lead them. By that logic, I’m the one who failed her.’

‘Nonsense!’ Ada said, frowning.

‘Well, there you are,’ said Hecate. ‘So the only conclusion is that this is Agatha’s fault and nobody else’s. Her actions were malicious and premeditated. You couldn’t have foreseen or prevented this.’

This wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation, not by a long way, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. But for this time at least, Ada nodded, and Hecate hoped she would at least try to believe it.

* * *

Afterwards they walked arm in arm in the sunshine, Ada bare-shouldered and Hecate under the shelter of a parasol. The spa’s gardens were arranged in well-tended beds, and as they strolled along Hecate took mental note of which plants they had, in case she might want to ask for any cuttings later.

Conversation had turned, as it all-too-often seemed to, to Mildred Hubble. The topic this time was the fact that she had pulled the entire school back from the brink of destruction and saved not only Ada and Hecate’s lives but the Great Wizard’s too. Hecate had to admit that it was… quite an accomplishment, especially for an inexperienced young witch.

‘So, perhaps you can calm down a bit about poor Mildred, next term?’ Ada suggested.

Hecate sighed. ‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘I didn’t think she understood what it meant to be a witch. I thought she was a danger to the other girls. And in all honesty, I still wonder if she might be. But her chant, the way she rallied everyone to save the school… there’s potential there, if only she can harness it.’

Hecate had only heard afterwards exactly what had happened, and a part of her wished she could have been there. A communal chant that powerful was something to see, and to think that Mildred Hubble, of all witches, had been the one to initiate and direct it...

‘So you’ll stop pushing for her to be expelled?’

‘I still don’t think she’s entirely safe. There’s still so much she has to learn, and she’s… frivolous. She doesn’t show the proper respect for our traditions. But it would be criminal for that much talent to go to waste, and she’s safer with us, learning to control her powers, than she would be out in the non-magical world.’

Ada made an amused noise and patted Hecate’s arm.

* * *

That night, their last night before going back home, Hecate brushed out her hair for bed and watched Ada pack. They had only been here a few days, but Ada’s things were strewn about the room as if she’d been here for weeks. She wandered from corner to corner, picking things up one at a time.

‘If you’d unpacked into the dresser when we arrived, this would be much more straightforward,’ Hecate pointed out mildly, when Ada got down on the floor to search for a perfume bottle that had rolled under the bed.

‘Agatha used to tell me off for being untidy,’ Ada said. ‘She was always the neat one.’

Hecate already knew that. So there must be a reason Ada was bringing it up.

‘Do you want to talk about it?’ she asked.

Ada retrieved the perfume and climbed to join Hecate sitting on the bed. Hecate took her hand.

‘It just… it shouldn’t still hurt this much that she hates me. I should be used to it by now. We were so close when we were young, and when she came back at the beginning of the year after disappearing for so long, I’d hoped… well. It was foolish to hope.’

‘It’s never foolish to hope,’ said Hecate gently.

‘But… she hates me enough to hurt the people around me, to hurt children. We’ve gone so far wrong, she’s done so many awful things… so why do I still miss her? Why am I still hurt that she doesn’t love me any more?’

Hecate hadn’t felt a moment’s guilt when they’d trapped Agatha and Miss Gullet in the painting. She’d even taken some convincing regarding Ada’s stipulation that they alter the spell so that the two of them at least wouldn’t have to be aware of the time passing. She’d seen first-hand for years the pain Agatha had caused, the times she’d raised Ada’s hopes of a cordial relationship only to dash them again. And she’d hurt one of their students, tried to hurt them all. Hecate certainly wouldn’t cry any tears for her. Agatha had always needed to learn that there were consequences for her actions.

But she wished that it didn’t hurt Ada so much, and in a way that she could do nothing to fix.

‘She’s still your sister,’ she said. ‘You can’t help the way you feel. But you can’t let it haunt you either. Agatha isn’t worth that.’

Ada sighed heavily.

‘Come on,’ said Hecate.

She pulled the covers back and climbed in, and Ada followed. Hecate pulled Ada close, tucked her chin against her shoulder.

‘When we were inside the painting…’ she said.

‘Mm?’

She felt Ada tense a little. She didn’t need to rehash the fear, the helplessness, of that day. Hecate wouldn’t make her.

‘I’m glad we got out,’ said Hecate instead. ‘But I’m glad you were with me. I mean… I’d rather you hadn’t been, I’d rather you hadn’t had to go through it at all… but knowing you were there, I was less afraid.’

Ada pulled Hecate’s hand up to her face and kissed her palm. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘Me too. And thank you for trying to save me.’

‘You know I always will.’

‘I do know,’ said Ada comfortably. ‘And thank you, for this too. For dragging me here. I feel a bit readier for the next term, now.’

‘I’m glad,’ said Hecate, and kissed Ada’s shoulder.

Ada sighed and burrowed a little closer. Hecate waited until Ada’s breaths were slow and steady before she closed her eyes.


End file.
